Wireless networks are telecommunications networks that use radio waves to carry information from one node in the network to one or more receiving nodes in the network. Cellular telephony is characterized by the use of radio cells that provide radio coverage for a geographic area, with multiple cells arranged to provide contiguous radio coverage over a larger area. Wired communication can also be used in portions of a wireless network, such as between cells or access points.
Wireless communication technologies are used in connection with many applications, including, for example, satellite communications systems, portable digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and mobile devices (e.g., cellular telephones, user equipment). Users of such applications can connect to a network (e.g., the Internet) as long as the user is within range of such a wireless communication technology. The range of the wireless communication technology can vary depending on the deployment. These applications use media protocols to stream media such as video and audio from media servers to client programs running on mobile devices. Example media protocols include adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming, real time streaming protocol (RTSP), and real-time transport protocol (RTP). These media protocols rely on video compression and coding techniques that reduce the data rate of video signals, allowing them to be sent over wireless links with constrained bandwidth characteristics.